ArticleBMC public health2026
Snack preferences among school-aged children: evidence from discrete choice experiments.
Article in BMC public health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAccelerated economic development and innovative food industry trends have contributed to worsening dietary imbalanced among Chinese school-aged population. To investigate snack preferences among school-aged children, determine the relative importance of different snack attributes, and explore how these preferences vary by social-demographic characteristics to inform targeted nutritional interventions.
methodsA stratified cluster random sampling strategy was employed to recruit 854 school-aged children (grades 7 and 8) from Hubei and Anhui provinces. An evaluation framework comprising six attributes (taste, nutrient claims, purchase location, price, package size, and social influence) was constructed based on a Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE). A D-optimal design was implemented using SAS 9.4 software to generate 16 choice sets (divided into two versions), with two-stage questions incorporated to mitigate bias. A mixed logit model was applied to calculate preference coefficients (β), relative importance (RI), and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for different attributes.
resultsAll six included attributes demonstrated statistically significant effects on local school-aged children’s snack choices (all P < 0.05). Specifically, school-aged children showed stronger preferences for snacks sold in supermarkets (β = 0.439), those rich in dietary fiber (β = 0.611), with sweet taste (β = 0.471), and commonly consumed by family members (β = 0.452). They were willing to pay an additional 46.49 CNY for snacks rich in dietary fiber. Large package size (β = -0.112) and price (β = -0.013) showed slight negative associations. Heterogeneity analysis revealed that boys preferred snacks rich in dietary fiber (β = 0.554) and were more price-sensitive (β = -0.026), while girls prioritized low-fat options (β = 0.738) and showed lower willingness to choose large packages (β = -0.259). School-aged children with less-educated parents placed greater emphasis on taste (RI = 25.33%), whereas those from highly-educated families valued package size more (RI = 10.43%). Overweight/obesity school-aged children preferred spicy snacks (β = 0.448) and were more price-sensitive (β = -0.115), while normal-weight school-aged children tended to choose sweet-tasting snacks (β = 0.510).
conclusionSnack preferences among school-aged children vary significantly by socio-demographic characteristics. Interventions should be tailored to the specific characteristics of them, while simultaneously engaging both the school-aged children and their parents to enhance participation and educational effectiveness, thereby reducing the purchase and consumption of unhealthy snacks.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.